The Only Sure Way to Secure the Border

By the Editors -
Feb 10, 2013

There’s a basic chicken-and-egg
problem that has long bedeviled the U.S. immigration debate:
What comes first, a secure border or effective reform?

For decades, “securing our borders” has been the rallying
cry among many Americans concerned about illegal immigration.
The blueprint on immigration reform recently released by a
bipartisan Senate group states that the path to legalized status
for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
is “contingent upon our success in securing our borders and
addressing visa overstays.” This sentiment is echoed by
conservatives in the House and in many statehouses, particularly
in the Southwest.

Unfortunately, this formulation has it exactly backward. To
achieve a secure border, we must first have effective
immigration reform.

Here’s why: The U.S. has about 7,000 miles of land border,
95,000 miles of shoreline and thousands of airports. There’s no
way this vast expanse can ever be truly secure. In addition to
illegal migrants, more than 50 million tourists arrive legally
in the U.S. each year, some of whom overstay their visas.

The U.S. now spends about $18 billion a year on immigration
control, more than on all other federal law enforcement agencies
combined. The number of Border Patrol agents has doubled in
recent years, reaching more than 21,000. The use of fencing,
drones and other enforcement measures has been sharply upgraded.

Proponents of a strong border policy should be pleased by
all this investment. Illegal (and legal) immigration from Mexico
is at a historic low.

Yet there’s another, arguably more compelling theory that
explains the decline in illegal immigration: It’s less a result
of border security than economics. What drives immigration from
Mexico and points south is the imbalance of economic opportunity
between there and here. In the past several years, with the U.S.
economy struggling, that disparity has grown less stark, and
illegal immigration has declined.

Of course, a prolonged recession isn’t an optimal border-
control strategy. It’s a reminder, however, that immigration is
essentially an economic phenomenon, which is why the U.S. border
with our prosperous neighbor to the north, Canada, is far less
trouble-prone. Consequently, to control immigration we must
address its economic roots, which are in the workplace, not at
the border. The key to solving the problem is less the point of
entry and more the point of hire.

Putting undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship,
modulating immigration flows to suit the needs of industry and
agriculture, and at last holding employers fully accountable for
the legal status of their employees are the most effective
border-control strategies the U.S. could put in place. If
there’s no opportunity to be had in an illegal labor market,
there will be few undocumented immigrants risking their lives to
take advantage of it.

Thus the secret of immigration reform isn’t first to secure
the border before setting undocumented workers right with the
law. It’s the reverse: First create a regime that ensures the
legal status of workers, with a regulated supply of migrants and
sharp penalties for employers who violate the law.

The passions elicited by border politics make this approach
difficult, in part because the demand for a lock on the nation’s
door seems so elemental. As Mexico and its neighbors grow more
prosperous (with help from trade with the U.S. and Canada), the
pressure on the border will decrease.

Meanwhile, the notion that the border can be made secure by
law enforcement and technology alone is a fantasy. If we want to
secure the border, Congress must first secure immigration
reform.